Sheffield Marriages

Discover your ancestors today by exploring over 65,000 marriage records from Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. You can find you ancestor’s marriage date, place of marriage, age and father’s name. These are valuable records for your family history research.

Located in South Yorkshire, historically apart of West Riding of Yorkshire. The name comes from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Sheffield grew from industrial roots and is known worldwide for the production of Sheffield Steel. One third of the city lies within the Peak District National Park. It boasts more woodland than any other city in the country. The transcripts were created by the Sheffield and District family history society.

In the Age field, instead of listing a numerical number, the transcript may list ‘Full Age.’ This would indicate that the individual is at least of the legal age of marriage, without consent, which was 21 years old. ‘Full Age’ description can sometimes be unhelpful for genealogical research. It is important to remember that some eager couples changed their age so that the marriage would take place.

In 1753, the Hardwick’s Marriage Act, fixed the age of marriage for women at 12 and men at 14, with the consent of their parents. If either parent objected, the marriage could not take place. The Act also fixed, 21 to be the age at which marriage could take place without the consent of the parents. In 1926, the age of marriage with consent was changed to 16 for both men and women, but remained at 21 for marriage without consent.

These laws did not apply to Scotland where the age of marriage without consent was set at 14 for boys and 12 for girls. This lead to English couples, who wished to elope, fleeing to Scotland. Gretna Green was the first Scottish settlement on the main route from England and became a popular wedding destination for elopers. To curb these clandestine marriages, Scottish law changed in 1856, to require that the couple live in Scotland for 21 days prior to the marriage. Finally, in 1939, Scottish marriage laws changed to the same as the English marriage laws. The current age of marriage at 16, was passed by an Act of Parliament in 1929.